Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
Encyclopedia
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is a 1948
American
comedy film
directed by H.C. Potter and starring Cary Grant
and Myrna Loy
. The film was written and produced by the team of Melvin Frank
and Norman Panama
. It was an adaptation of Eric Hodgins
' popular 1946 novel
, illustrated by William Steig
.
The film was a box office
hit upon its release, and has remained a popular film through cable television broadcasts and the home video
market. Warner Home Video
released the film to DVD
with restored and remastered audio and video in 2004, following a campaign to get it released to the medium. The film inspired the Tom Hanks
' The Money Pit
(1986), and prompted a 2007
remake called Are We Done Yet?
The house built for the 1948 film still stands on the old Fox Ranch property in Malibu Creek State Park
in the hills a few miles north of Malibu. It is used as an office for the Park.
and they get excited about moving.
Planning to purchase and "fix up" an old home, the couple contact a real estate agent, who uses them to unload "The Old Hackett Place" in fictional Lansdale County, Connecticut
. It is a dilapidated, two hundred-year-old farmhouse. Blandings purchases the property for more than the going rate for land in the area, provoking his friend/lawyer Bill Cole to chastise him for following his heart rather than his head.
(Cole narrates the film, smoking a pipe, an apparent nod to the stage manager character in Thornton Wilder
's Our Town
.) The old house, dating from the Revolutionary War
-era, turns out to be structurally unsound and has to be torn down. The Blandings hire architect Simms (Reginald Denny
) to design and supervise the construction of the new home. From the original purchase to the new house's completion, troubles beset the Blandings.
On top of all this, at work Jim is assigned the task of coming up with a slogan for "WHAM"-brand ham, an advertising account that has destroyed the careers of previous account executives assigned to it. Jim also suspects that Muriel is cheating on him with Bill Cole after he slept at the Blandings' alone in the house with Muriel one night due to a violent thunderstorm.
With mounting pressure, sky-rocketing expenses, and his new assignment, Jim starts to wonder why he wanted to live in the country.The Blandings' maid Gussy provides Blandings with the perfect WHAM slogan, and he saves his job. As the film ends, Bill Cole says that he realizes that some things "you do buy with your heart."
. Blandings may turn out to be too citified for small-town audiences, and incomprehensible abroad; but among those millions of Americans who have tried to feather a country nest with city greenbacks, it ought to hit the jackpot."
Over half a century later, the film placed 72nd on the American Film Institute
's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.
, selling some of them by raffle
; over 60 of the houses were equipped by General Electric
, including the ones in the following cities:
Phoenix, AZ, Little Rock, AR, Bakersfield, CA,
Fresno, CA, Oakland, CA, Sacramento, CA,
San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA, Denver, CO,
Bridgeport, CT, Hartford, CT, Washington, DC,
Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Indianapolis, IN,
South Bend, IN, Terre Haute, IN, Des Moines, IA,
Louisville, KY, Baltimore, MD, Worcester, MA,
Detroit, MI, Grand Rapids, MI, St. Paul, MN,
Kansas City, MO, St. Louis, MO, Omaha, NE,
Tenafly, NJ, Albuquerque, NM, Albany, NY,
Buffalo, NY, Rochester, NY, Syracuse, NY,
Tarrytown, NY, Utica, NY, Greensboro, NC,
Rocky Mount, NC, Cleveland, OH, Columbus, OH,
Toledo, OH, Oklahoma City, OK, Tulsa, OK,
Portland, OR, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA,
Providence, RI, Chattanooga, TN, Memphis, TN,
Nashville, TN, Amarillo, TX, Austin, TX,
Austin, TX, Dallas, TX, Fort Worth, TX,
Houston, TX, Salt Lake City, UT, Seattle, WA,
and
Spokane, WA.
Locations included Bakersfield, California
; Worcester
and East Natick, Massachusetts
; Portland, Oregon
; and Ottawa Hills, Ohio
. Thousands lined up in front of the house in Ottawa Hills, paying admission to view the house at its opening.
In Phoenix, Arizona
, the dream house was a ranch house built by P.W. Womack Construction Company in a central city development called BelAir (now part of Encanto Village
).
for Fortune
magazine; that article was reprinted in Reader's Digest
and (in condensed form) in Life
before being published as a novel.
Melvin Frank
and Norman Panama
adapted the novel of the same name
; their script is fairly faithful to the novel, with some dialogue used verbatim. The time frame of the movie is telescoped, and some plot lines are added and removed. The movie omits some troubles contained in the book, such as a feud with the local banker and the hostility with which Blandings is greeted by some local townspeople. The role of Bill Cole is enlarged in the movie, and includes a new subplot related to his wife that is not in the novel. The subplot related to Blandings's job troubles and the "Wham" account is not in the book.
The DVD
release of the film includes two radio adaptations, both with Cary Grant reprising his leading role. Irene Dunne
played his wife Muriel in the October 10, 1949, Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on CBS
(running one hour; Grant's wife Betsy Drake
played Muriel in the June 9, 1950, broadcast on NBC
's Screen Director's Playhouse (a 1/2 hour version).
1948 in film
The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
directed by H.C. Potter and starring Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
and Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
. The film was written and produced by the team of Melvin Frank
Melvin Frank
Melvin Frank was an American screenwriter, film producer and film director. He collaborated with a former schoolfriend, Norman Panama to form a writing partnership which endured for 3 decades...
and Norman Panama
Norman Panama
Norman Panama was an American screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois. He collaborated with a former schoolfriend, Melvin Frank to form a writing partnership which endured for three decades...
. It was an adaptation of Eric Hodgins
Eric Hodgins
Eric Francis Hodgins was the American author of the popular Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House , illustrated by William Steig....
' popular 1946 novel
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (novel)
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is a 1946 comedy novel written by Eric Hodgins and illustrated by William Steig, describing the vicissitudes of buying a home in the country. It originally appeared as a short story in the April 1946 issue of Fortune magazine.It was adapted as a movie of the...
, illustrated by William Steig
William Steig
William Steig was a prolific American cartoonist, sculptor and, later in life, an author of popular children's literature...
.
The film was a box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
hit upon its release, and has remained a popular film through cable television broadcasts and the home video
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
market. Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video
Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., itself part of Time Warner. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video . The company launched in the United States with twenty films on VHS and Betamax videocassettes in late 1979...
released the film to DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
with restored and remastered audio and video in 2004, following a campaign to get it released to the medium. The film inspired the Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
' The Money Pit
The Money Pit
The Money Pit is a 1986 comedy film and remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. Directed by Richard Benjamin and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the film stars Tom Hanks and Shelley Long as a couple who attempt to renovate a recently purchased house. The Money Pit was filmed in New...
(1986), and prompted a 2007
2007 in film
This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...
remake called Are We Done Yet?
Are We Done Yet?
Are We Done Yet? is a 2007 family comedy film starring Ice Cube. The film is both a remake of the classic Cary Grant comedy Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House and a sequel to 2005's comedy Are We There Yet? The film was directed by Steve Carr from a screenplay by Hank Nelken...
The house built for the 1948 film still stands on the old Fox Ranch property in Malibu Creek State Park
Malibu Creek State Park
Malibu Creek State Park is a California state park in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, in Calabasas. It opened to the public in 1976.-Location:Malibu Creek State Park stretches from below Malibu Lake in the west to Piuma Road in the east...
in the hills a few miles north of Malibu. It is used as an office for the Park.
Plot
Jim Blandings (Grant), a bright account executive in the advertising business, lives with his wife Muriel (Loy) and two daughters in a cramped New York apartment. Muriel secretly plans to remodel their apartment. After rejecting this idea, Jim Blandings comes across an ad for new homes in ConnecticutConnecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
and they get excited about moving.
Planning to purchase and "fix up" an old home, the couple contact a real estate agent, who uses them to unload "The Old Hackett Place" in fictional Lansdale County, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. It is a dilapidated, two hundred-year-old farmhouse. Blandings purchases the property for more than the going rate for land in the area, provoking his friend/lawyer Bill Cole to chastise him for following his heart rather than his head.
(Cole narrates the film, smoking a pipe, an apparent nod to the stage manager character in Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
's Our Town
Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...
.) The old house, dating from the Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
-era, turns out to be structurally unsound and has to be torn down. The Blandings hire architect Simms (Reginald Denny
Reginald Denny (actor)
Reginald Denny was an English stage, film, and television actor. He was once an amateur boxing champion of Great Britain.-Acting career:...
) to design and supervise the construction of the new home. From the original purchase to the new house's completion, troubles beset the Blandings.
On top of all this, at work Jim is assigned the task of coming up with a slogan for "WHAM"-brand ham, an advertising account that has destroyed the careers of previous account executives assigned to it. Jim also suspects that Muriel is cheating on him with Bill Cole after he slept at the Blandings' alone in the house with Muriel one night due to a violent thunderstorm.
With mounting pressure, sky-rocketing expenses, and his new assignment, Jim starts to wonder why he wanted to live in the country.The Blandings' maid Gussy provides Blandings with the perfect WHAM slogan, and he saves his job. As the film ends, Bill Cole says that he realizes that some things "you do buy with your heart."
Reception
According to Time magazine, "Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas have a highly experienced way with this sort of comedy, and director H. C. Potter is so much at home with it that he gets additional laughs out of the predatory rustics and even out of the avid gestures of a steam shovelSteam shovel
A steam shovel is a large steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as rock and soil. It is the earliest type of power shovel or excavator. They played a major role in public works in the 19th and early 20th century, being key to the construction of railroads...
. Blandings may turn out to be too citified for small-town audiences, and incomprehensible abroad; but among those millions of Americans who have tried to feather a country nest with city greenbacks, it ought to hit the jackpot."
Over half a century later, the film placed 72nd on the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Cary Grant Cary Grant Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship... |
Jim Blandings |
| Myrna Loy Myrna Loy Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles... |
Muriel Blandings |
| Melvyn Douglas Melvyn Douglas Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg , better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor.Coming to prominence in the 1930s as a suave leading man , Douglas later transitioned into more mature and fatherly roles as in his Academy Award-winning performances in Hud... |
Bill Cole |
| Louise Beavers Louise Beavers Louise Beavers was an African-American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1930s, most often in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Beavers was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American... |
Gussie |
| Reginald Denny Reginald Denny (actor) Reginald Denny was an English stage, film, and television actor. He was once an amateur boxing champion of Great Britain.-Acting career:... |
Henry Simms |
| Jason Robards, Sr. Jason Robards, Sr. Jason Nelson Robards, Sr. was an American stage and screen actor, and the father of Oscar-winning actor Jason Robards, Jr... |
John Retch |
| Lex Barker Lex Barker Lex Barker was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.-Early life:... |
Carpenter Foreman |
| Connie Marshall | Betsy Blandings |
| Sharyn Moffett Sharyn Moffett Sharyn Moffett was an American child actor of the 1940s. Moffett, born Patricia Sharyn Moffett on September 12, 1936 to a show business family, appeared in a dozen films including The Body Snatcher , the film noir The Locket , Child of Divorce Banjo , and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House... |
Joan Blandings |
| Ian Wolfe Ian Wolfe Ian Wolfe was an American actor whose films date from 1934 to 1990. Until 1934, he worked as a theatre actor. Wolfe mostly found work as a character actor, appearing in over 270 films... |
Real Estate Agent Smith |
| Nestor Paiva Nestor Paiva Nestor Paiva was an American actor of Portuguese descent who portrayed the innkeeper on Walt Disney's live-action television series Zorro by ABC and its feature film The Sign of Zorro which was shot in Burbank's Walt Disney Studios.-Career:Nestor appeared in motion pictures and television shows... |
Joe Appolonio |
| Harry Shannon Harry Shannon (actor) Harry Shannon was an American character actor. He often appeared in Western films.-Biography:Shannon was born on a farm in Saginaw, Michigan. Developing into a first-rate musical comedy performer, Shannon went on to work in virtually all branches of live entertainment, including vaudeville and... |
W.D. Tesander |
| Tito Vuolo | Mr. Zucca |
Promotion
As a promotion for the film, the studio built 73 "dream houses" in various locations in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, selling some of them by raffle
Raffle
A raffle is a competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each ticket having the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn from a container holding a copy of every number...
; over 60 of the houses were equipped by General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, including the ones in the following cities:
Phoenix, AZ, Little Rock, AR, Bakersfield, CA,
Fresno, CA, Oakland, CA, Sacramento, CA,
San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA, Denver, CO,
Bridgeport, CT, Hartford, CT, Washington, DC,
Atlanta, GA, Chicago, IL, Indianapolis, IN,
South Bend, IN, Terre Haute, IN, Des Moines, IA,
Louisville, KY, Baltimore, MD, Worcester, MA,
Detroit, MI, Grand Rapids, MI, St. Paul, MN,
Kansas City, MO, St. Louis, MO, Omaha, NE,
Tenafly, NJ, Albuquerque, NM, Albany, NY,
Buffalo, NY, Rochester, NY, Syracuse, NY,
Tarrytown, NY, Utica, NY, Greensboro, NC,
Rocky Mount, NC, Cleveland, OH, Columbus, OH,
Toledo, OH, Oklahoma City, OK, Tulsa, OK,
Portland, OR, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA,
Providence, RI, Chattanooga, TN, Memphis, TN,
Nashville, TN, Amarillo, TX, Austin, TX,
Austin, TX, Dallas, TX, Fort Worth, TX,
Houston, TX, Salt Lake City, UT, Seattle, WA,
and
Spokane, WA.
Locations included Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....
; Worcester
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
and East Natick, Massachusetts
Natick, Massachusetts
Natick is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Natick is located near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 33,006 at the 2010 census. Only west from Boston, Natick is considered part of the Greater Boston area...
; Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
; and Ottawa Hills, Ohio
Ottawa Hills, Ohio
Ottawa Hills is a village in Lucas County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,564 at the 2000 census. The village serves as an affluent bedroom community and suburb of Toledo. The village maintains a full time police and fire rescue department. The Ottawa Hills school district ranked first...
. Thousands lined up in front of the house in Ottawa Hills, paying admission to view the house at its opening.
In Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, the dream house was a ranch house built by P.W. Womack Construction Company in a central city development called BelAir (now part of Encanto Village
Encanto, Phoenix, Arizona
The Encanto Village is one of the 15 villages that make up Phoenix, Arizona. It is located in Central Phoenix. The western border of the village is the I-17 Black Canyon Freeway, and the southern border is McDowell Road. The Grand Canal makes up the northern and eastern border.The core of the...
).
Related works
The story behind the film began as an April 1946 article written by by Eric HodginsEric Hodgins
Eric Francis Hodgins was the American author of the popular Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House , illustrated by William Steig....
for Fortune
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
magazine; that article was reprinted in Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
and (in condensed form) in Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
before being published as a novel.
Melvin Frank
Melvin Frank
Melvin Frank was an American screenwriter, film producer and film director. He collaborated with a former schoolfriend, Norman Panama to form a writing partnership which endured for 3 decades...
and Norman Panama
Norman Panama
Norman Panama was an American screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois. He collaborated with a former schoolfriend, Melvin Frank to form a writing partnership which endured for three decades...
adapted the novel of the same name
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (novel)
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is a 1946 comedy novel written by Eric Hodgins and illustrated by William Steig, describing the vicissitudes of buying a home in the country. It originally appeared as a short story in the April 1946 issue of Fortune magazine.It was adapted as a movie of the...
; their script is fairly faithful to the novel, with some dialogue used verbatim. The time frame of the movie is telescoped, and some plot lines are added and removed. The movie omits some troubles contained in the book, such as a feud with the local banker and the hostility with which Blandings is greeted by some local townspeople. The role of Bill Cole is enlarged in the movie, and includes a new subplot related to his wife that is not in the novel. The subplot related to Blandings's job troubles and the "Wham" account is not in the book.
The DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
release of the film includes two radio adaptations, both with Cary Grant reprising his leading role. Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne was an American film actress and singer of the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. Dunne was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her performances in Cimarron , Theodora Goes Wild , The Awful Truth , Love Affair and I Remember Mama...
played his wife Muriel in the October 10, 1949, Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
(running one hour; Grant's wife Betsy Drake
Betsy Drake
Betsy Drake is an American actress, psychotherapist and writer. She was the third wife of actor Cary Grant.-Early life and education:Drake, the eldest child of two American expatriates, was born in Paris, France...
played Muriel in the June 9, 1950, broadcast on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Screen Director's Playhouse (a 1/2 hour version).